HERE comes ‘The Kraken.’
June Mar Fajardo as expected, now leads the PBA Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference race heading to the best-of-seven finals pitting his San Miguel Beermen against the Meralco Bolts.
The 6-foot-10 Fajardo wrested the No. 1 spot from previous leader Robert Bolick as San Miguel made it back to the title series following its four-game sweep of Rain or Shine in the semis.
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Behind numbers of 17.3 points, 14.5 rebounds, and 3.1 assists, Fajardo totaled 43.12 statistical points and appeared poised to take his 10th career BPC title.
Fajardo again said individual awards are only secondary to his main goal of helping San Miguel retain its all-Filipino title.
“Hindi ko muna iniisip 'yan. Focus muna ako sa finals,” he curtly said.
Bolick is a close No. 2 with 43.08 statistical points, but with NLEX already out of the picture, could probably end up falling short anew of winning the conference’s highest individual award.
The prolific combo guard out of San Beda still paced the league in scoring with 28.3 points, while adding 5.2 rebounds, and 6.5 assists.
Terrafirma rookie Stephen Holt is running third in the race with 40.8 statistical points and posted all-around numbers of 21.08 points, 8.1 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 2.4 steals in playing a major role in the Dyip’s first-ever playoffs appearance since 2016.
The top pick in last year’s draft is also the leading candidate for the Rookie of the Year award.
C-Stan rounds out Top Five
Fajardo’s San Miguel teammate CJ Perez is No. 4 with 39.18 statistical points followed by Barangay Ginebra’s Christian Standhardinger with 39.16.
Of the five, Fajardo has won the BPC nine times and Perez got his first during the last Commissioner’s Cup.
The top five players on the list are the official candidates for the BPC award to be handed out before Game 4 of the finals.
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